SACRAMENTO, Calif.—Two University of California, Davis (UC Davis) MIND
Institute researchers that the university touts as "internationally respected" have received grants from Autism Speaks, a
national autism advocacy and science organization, to study autism from
two different perspectives.

Sally Ozonoff, an endowed professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral
Sciences, has received a three-year, $450,000 grant to
develop a new, video-based method of identifying autism in very young
children.

Ozonoff will collaborate with a company that produces software for
families of children with autism to develop and pilot a new video-based
autism screening measure, the Video-Referenced Infant Rating System for
Autism, or VIRSA.

The tool is intended to be a secure, confidential website where
parents can view videos depicting children with the condition, selecting
those that show behaviors that are most like their child's.
The research is aimed at creating a tool that can help identify autism
risk at a younger age, offering the opportunity for intervention before
full-symptom onset.

The new measure has potential for much wider use
than existing measures, which rely upon visits to healthcare providers.
Since the VIRSA is intended for Internet administration, it reportedly will be of
lower cost than tests that require clinic visits, as well as being
immediately accessible, rather than requiring the lengthy waits for
appointments that are typical of most clinics.

"When we interview parents about their child's development, we may ask
'Does your baby do that?' and we sometimes have difficulty conveying
what we mean," Ozonoff said.
"But when we show them a video they immediately recognize the behavior
and are better able to answer. We think that using video will make the
process of early screening easier for parents than relying on written
descriptions of behavior alone."

After it is developed, Ozonoff and her colleagues will study VIRSA's use
by administering it three times—at 6, 12 and 18 months—to parents of
infants who are at a familial risk of autism spectrum disorder. The
study will examine the measure's accuracy by comparing its results with
already established autism screening tools.

Jacqueline Crawley, the Robert E. Chason endowed chair in translational research in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, has
received a one-year, $94,000 equipment grant from Autism Speaks for the
start-up of a new preclinical initiative to discover pharmacological
compounds effective in treating the diagnostic symptoms of autism.

The grant will establish the first phase of the Preclinical Autism
Consortium for Therapeutics, or PACT, which will test compounds in
genetic mouse and rat models of autism, for reversal of autism-relevant
behaviors and physiology.

Crawley will test potential new medications in mice with mutations in
genes associated with autism that display behaviors analogous to the
core symptoms of autism, such as abnormal social behavior, reduced
vocalization, repetitive self-grooming, stereotyped circling and
anxiety-like behaviors, among other features.

PACT, a multicenter
consortium initiated in collaboration with the leadership of Autism
Speaks, includes two other founding principal investigators.
One is Richard Paylor, a colleague at Baylor College of Medicine, who will conduct
analogous behavioral assays in rats with parallel mutations. A
collaborator at Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School,
Mustafa Sahin, will conduct physiological assays in the same mutant
mouse and rat models of autism.

In addition, Jill Silverman, assistant adjunct
professor and a collaborator with Crawley, is a key investigator in the
PACT initiative.

The animals will be administered compounds that represent potential
pharmacological therapeutics, to test their ability to restore normal
sociability and communication skills and lessen other autism-relevant
behaviors. Compounds that reduce symptoms in both mouse and rat models
of autism will point the way to clinical trials for medications to
improve the symptoms of autism in humans.

"PACT represents the first concerted effort to evaluate a broad range of
novel pharmacological targets in multiple rodent genetic models of
autism using rigorously standardized assays. Compounds effective at
reversing social deficits and repetitive behaviors in mouse and rat
models could translate to clinical successes in effectively treating
diagnostic symptoms in adults, teenagers, and children with autism,"
Crawley said.

"These grants from Autism Speaks are helping to launch two very exciting
projects," said Leonard Abbeduto, director of the MIND Institute. "The
Ozonoff project has the potential to improve early diagnosis and thus,
ensure earlier provision of needed services for families. The grant to
the Crawley lab is the first step in creating an infrastructure to
dramatically accelerate the development of drug treatments for autism.
Both projects have the potential to significantly change clinical
services for affected individuals."